Whither Pete Carroll, oh Former Facebook Friend?

Sadly, this day has come. That’s right, today marks the day when a horrified Sportsbiztech scribe has discovered that my total number of Facebook friends has decreased by one. And my guess as to who the culprit was proved to be correct: USC football coach Pete Carroll.

You see, Coach Carroll started a Facebook page last month. Soon, hundreds of Facebookers from students to alums to curious folks like me asked to be his friend. Now suddenly, overnight, all mentions of Coach have been removed from my news feeds. I was about to take this personally — perhaps I had been discovered, since I did not attend USC and have never lived in California! — until I realized that search results for his name no longer put his name and picture at the top of the list, or anywhere on it. The URL to his profile now just redirects to www.facebook.com. It’s a shame because I genuinely did want to receive updates on Coach’s “A Better L.A.” cause and his thoughts on March Madness, which he expressed some excitement about just yesterday.

So what exactly happened? Did Coach run into some of the same privacy and security issues that I mentioned in one of my previous blog entries? It will be interesting to find out…

Mar. 15 update: I have contacted USC’s football department as well as the student who maintained Coach Carroll’s Facebook page. If I hear anything, you’ll read it here first…

Mar. 18 update: Still no word from either USC or the student, perhaps because the school is currently on spring break.

Mar. 18 update No. 2: HE’S BACK!  Just as mysterious as his disappearance, Coach Carroll is now back on Facebook and loving March Madness (according to his status message).  But why the abbreviated Spring Break, Coach?